Rosetta Stone Endangered Language Program Releases Chitimacha Language Software (fwd link)

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Rosetta Stone Endangered Language Program Releases Chitimacha Language Software

Posted : Mon, 25 Jan 2010 13:02:13 GMT
Author : Rosetta Stone Inc.
Category : Press Release

ARLINGTON, Va. - (Business Wire) Rosetta Stone Inc. (NYSE: RST), a
leading provider of technology-based language learning solutions,
announced today the release of the Chitimacha language version of
Rosetta Stone® software for exclusive use by the Chitimacha Tribe of
Louisiana. Despite the death of the last fluent speaker in 1940, the
Chitimacha tribe is reviving its language through collaboration with
the Rosetta Stone Endangered Language Program. The Rosetta Stone
immersion approach enables language learners to develop everyday
proficiency by linking meaning and structure of a new language
directly to real world objects and events without translation. The
Chitimacha language version of the software has been created through a
Rosetta Stone corporate grant with all distribution rights belonging
to the tribe.

“We are honored that the Rosetta Stone Endangered Language Program can
help the Chitimacha reclaim a piece of their heritage and cultural
identity,” said Marion Bittinger, manager of the Rosetta Stone
Endangered Language Program. “We are optimistic our work with
indigenous groups will be a step towards reversing the tide of global
language extinction.”

With no native Chitimacha speakers in existence, the tribe’s Cultural
Department began its language revitalization program in 1997, using
wax cylinder recordings and field notes made 65 years before by
renowned linguist Morris Swadesh. The recordings and field notes
allowed a few tribal members to immerse themselves in the complex
grammar and vocabulary of the dormant language and learn to pronounce
the difficult sequences of sounds. As a result of the grant, Rosetta
Stone staff members collaborated in the adaptation of the software to
teach concepts and structures using only the Chitimacha language.

“Language is really the heart of any culture. It’s not just about
learning the words – it’s about the connection to your past,” said
Kimberly Walden, Cultural Director of the Chitimacha Tribe and a key
figure in the three-year effort to customize, record and produce the
software. “The Rosetta Stone component of our language revitalization
program will transform the way the Chitimacha language is taught. It
will allow us to reach our entire membership regardless of their
location and will enable the tribe as a whole to communicate as we did
more than 75 years ago.”

Learning with Rosetta Stone is a natural choice for language
revitalization programs as the award-winning solutions help users
develop language proficiency without translation, memorization or
conjugation tables. The Rosetta Stone Endangered Language Program has
developed software for several indigenous languages, including Mohawk
(Kanien’keha), the coastal dialect of Inupiaq in Alaska and Inuttitut
in Labrador, Canada. The North Slope Inupiaq and Navajo languages are
also currently under development with Rosetta Stone.

For more information please visit pr.RosettaStone.com.

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